THE RUBY CODE

A gamer in the real world and an AI in a virtual one team up to tackle both corporate baddies and personal crises.

Setting her thriller a few years into a high-tech surveillance state future but basing it on universal themes, Khoury pairs 13-year-old Ash Tyler, trying to escape his widowed mother’s vicious boyfriend by losing himself in a VR fantasy called Glass Realm, with 13-year-old white-haired, red-gold–eyed Ruby. At first, he takes her to be an NPC in the game, but she turns out to be a powerful, curious intelligence who is really good at slaying virtual monsters. This, it quickly develops, is because she’s an escaped cyberweapon developed by Syntheos, a ruthless security corporation that will stop at nothing to get her back. Fast and furious escapades through a futuristic Manhattan lead to both good chemistry between the leads and two assaults on the heavily defended corporate headquarters (“It looks like a middle school,” remarks one kid). The first is a disastrous one that leaves Ruby recaptured and reprogrammed; the second is a rescue that works because Ash finds a way to reawaken in Ruby a suppressed curiosity about feelings and self-awareness that leads to restored independence of thought and an upbeat ending. Ash reads White; names cue ethnic diversity in the supporting cast.

Exciting and fast paced, with provocative notions to ponder about what makes us human.